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2 days ago
A short introduction to SpecialEffect
Hello everyone! My name is Tom Donegan an I am the Events Coordinator for SpecialEffect. We are delighted to be joining forces with NSE as their 2019 Charity of the Year and it is a real honour to have this opportunity to tell you a little more about our work and the support we’ve enjoyed to date from students around the country.
SpecialEffect is a small independent charity that was created in 2007 by my father, Dr Mick Donegan. We now have a staff of 22 based in West Oxfordshire but travelling all over the country and sometimes internationally as well. Our mission is to help make what we call “leisure technology” (including videogames) accessible to people with even the most severe physical disabilities. This includes people who have suffered a serious accident or illness that may have left them partially or wholly paralysed, as well as people with progressive conditions such as Spinal Muscular Atrophy and Motor Neurone Disease.
A lot of our work involves making home and hospital visits to carry out individual assessments. We have a team of Occupational Therapists who cover a LOT of miles every year travelling around the UK! Their job is to see what range of movement a person may have and then try to figure out a personalised solution, which enables them to use technology to help fulfil their potential and, most importantly, have fun!
It will come as no surprise that this work often involves getting people set-up to play videogames, as this can provide a portal to so many experiences that many of us take for granted – from playing football, to driving a car, to exploring a virtual world. Obviously, games can take you far beyond ‘everyday’ experiences as well, not to mention the immense benefits of playing socially on-line and being able to compete on a level playing-field.
One of the things we’re best known for is using modified controllers that are easier for people with disabilities to use. As an example, they might have buttons and triggers repositioned on one side of the gamepad to enable someone with only one hand to play. Or they might have lighter joystick springs that require less muscle strength to press. Often where the real expertise comes into play will be if someone is unable to use their hands at all. Then we’ll need to think outside the box a little and employ technologies like speech recognition and eye-tracking.
Back in May, we launched EyeMine – a purpose-built interface that allows you to play Minecraft using only your eyes. We were also involved in the development of Microsoft’s new Xbox Adaptive Controller, which represents a huge leap forward for accessible gaming. We are also increasingly asked to share our knowledge with large developers like Playground Games and EA.
However, with each new development demand for our core work serving the most disabled gamers goes on, as they will always need a dedicated specialist service that can provide them bespoke solutions. In fact, demand is increasing all the time as more people hear about us and see what is possible! We don’t charge fees for our any of our work and all our equipment is loaned out for free, hence we are 100% reliant on the generosity of our supporters to keep providing what has become an increasingly vital service to our users.
This is where you guys come in!
We have been so lucky in recent years to have members of the student gaming and esports community fundraising for us through a wide variety of events. In the past 12 months alone, we’ve had The London School of Economics Students' Union Gaming Soc doing a 24hr marathon for RAG week, the University of Bolton Gaming Students doing a 24hr Game Jam, Aberystwyth Community of Gamers doing a charity LAN Party, and Warwick Esports / Comp Soc doing a 48hr Summer LAN - to name just a few! We also have a strong student presence in our GameBlast event, which takes places every February. This is something we’re really keen to build on with NSE and its members, but more about that next time…
If you’d like to find out more about SpecialEffect please visit our website here: https://www.specialeffect.org.uk/
To get a better sense of the technology we use and the individual set-ups we create, I highly recommend watching some of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/user/GameOnForEVERYONE
Images in the banner and article used courtesy of StoryBoxSquared and Warwick Esports
